Rome

St. Peter’s Basilicata. Main apse, showing the highly ornate ceiling. Basilica Sancti Petri in Latin, this is the Papal major basilica, consecrated on 18 November ,1626. Among the prestigious architects were Donato Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Domenico Fontana, Carlo Maderno, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Francesco Borromini. The edifice combines Renaissance and Baroque styles. Work began in 1506, and took 120 years to complete.
Although it is often assumed to be a cathedral, it is in fact not the seat of a bishop.

St. Peter’s Basilica,one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. The church is surprisingly bright in the interior, and can hold 20,000 seated people, or 60,000 standing. The current building replaces the Old St. Peter’s Basilica, built in the 4th century by emperor Constantine. The church is one of the holiest Catholic shrines, but is not actually the mother church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, both of which are the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome.

Michelangelo’s Pietà.

St. Peter

St. Peter’s Basilica altar. It is traditionally considered to the burial site of Saint Peter. The tomb of St. Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, lies beneath this high altar, the Altar of the Confession. along with Peter, many popes, cardinals, and bishops have been interred here.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Longinus holding his spear. Born in the 1st century at Sandiale of Cappadocia, he died at Mantua, Italy. He is venerated by the Catholic church, Anglicans, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Oriental Orthodoxy. His feast day is 15th March, and he is the patron of military personnel and the blind.
His name is given to the unkown Roman soldier who pierced Christ’s flank with a lance, the last of the Five Holy Wounds. His tradition describes him as a convert to Christianity, and his name first appears in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus.

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica

St. Peter’s Basilica. It is 220m in length, 150m wide, and 136.6m high. It is the largest church in the world, by interior measure.

St. Peter’s Basilica Dome, one of the largest in the world. There is a spiral staircase, allowed access to the upper reaches of the dome, and the four columns supporting it hold statues representing the four major hold relics believed to be held at the basilica: St. Longinus with his spear, St. Helena with the True Cross, St. Veronica with her veil, and St. Andrew, whose skull was possessed by the Vatican until the 20th century.

Swiss Guard outside St. Peter’s Basilica

Colosseo

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